Darko Gyabi's goal earned in-form Hull City an impressive Championship win at Middlesbrough which moves them to within two points of their second-placed opponents.

The Tigers midfielder capitalised on great work by Kyle Joseph in the first half to secure a win which stretches his side's unbeaten run to five games.

Defeat at the Riverside means that Boro have now gone three games without a win, or a goal, and they now have the play-off pack breathing down their necks in the chase for promotion.

The defeat comes just 24 days after Kim Hellberg's side had won 4-1 in the reverse fixture at the MKM Stadium.

Boro have suffered from injury absences in recent games, but the honeymoon period for head coach Hellberg, after his team won their first four games following his appointment in November, appears to have come to a halt.

This loss follows a defeat at Bristol City and a goalless home draw with Blackburn.

They came up against a Hull side which has been gaining momentum since that defeat by Boro earlier in the month, and they have now won four out of five.

If they had not let two points slip at rock bottom Sheffield Wednesday on Friday they would have been level on points with Boro.

Sergej Jakirovic switched to three centre-backs at the Riverside, although his gameplan was disturbed when wing-back Ryan Giles was forced off early through injury, which meant 19-year-old Cathal McCarthy was introduced for only his third appearance.

With Regan Slater popping up everywhere and the Tigers defending as a team, Boro struggled to fashion any clear-cut chances, while at the other end a sharp piece of skill by Joseph brought the only goal.

Taking Slater's pass, Joseph span past his marker Matt Targett and quick feet took him past goalkeeper Sol Brynn before he cut the ball back from the by-line for Gyabi to sweep into the net.

Boro laid siege to the Hull goal but goalkeeper Ivor Pandur had only a tame Tommy Conway shot to deal with in the entire first 45 minutes as Hellberg's side huffed and puffed to no effect.

Indeed, it was 72 minutes before Pandur had to stretch himself, getting low to turn away substitute Delano Burgzorg's attempt, and then going high to push a rising drive from the same player over the bar.

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg told BBC Radio Tees:

"Making a game look like this and coming away without any points - that's not good enough. At the moment we're not scoring any goals, and we have to be honest with that - we're not good enough in those moments.

"You can look at the last three games, not scoring a goal from something like 70 shots. That's not good enough so we have to work with that part.

"Sometimes the ball just doesn't want to go in, but you also have to look at the quality in the finishing, how we get players in the best positions to finish, and that's what I have to look at.

"We had 23 shots, and they had one shot on target and made it count."

Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside:

"We were almost perfect in the defensive phase because we knew Middlesbrough would have the ball and are really dangerous.

"They have the biggest possession [percentage] in this league, and that's the reason we changed our system today so we had control in the middle zone to try to direct them on the sides and then when they had a cross in our box we had control there.

"We were very good in this and when we used our chance through Darko [Gyabi]. At the end of the game I didn't feel we were struggling. They try to put you under pressure with crosses or shooting, but if we didn't stop it with the [outfield] players then Ivor [Pandur] made two saves.

"I cannot be unhappy today because we got three points in a very difficult place."